In the late 1920s, Nâzım Hikmet introduced free verse to Turkish poetry, and he was thus the first modern Turkish poet. He wrote the majority of Human Landscapes, his magnum opus, while in prison. The five hundred-page epic was only published posthumously, divided into five ‘books’. Michiel Vandevelde staged Book I last year, commissioned by steierische herbst. Book II now follows.

In her new creation, Mette Edvardsen explores interfaces with opera, flanked by composer and performer Matteo Fargion. Together, they deconstruct the mythological figure of Penelope, the woman who spent years waiting for her husband Odysseus. But her apparent passivity conceals tremendous power. Be whisked away to this intimate, minimalist dream world, where new relationships are forged between women, the world, and the other.

Now that bodies are occupying more and more museums, choreographer and philosopher Noé Soulier is presenting an opposite movement: what if instead of bodies, the artworks themselves adapted to a new space? Performing Art presents twenty pieces from the collection of the Centre Pompidou. You do not see them as you walk through a museum, but from your seat in the theatre.

Laure Prouvost’s first work for the theatre stage is rooted in her film Dit Learn, in which a quick succession of everyday objects, images and texts encourages you to imbue everything with new meaning. You can expect an ‘expanded cinema experience’ in which recorded and live images duplicate the actions in the theatre – dance, music, sound, projection.

SAFE begins as a concert and then evolves into a sophisticated audio play. Based on Todd Haynes’ film Safe (1995) – in which a woman suffers increasingly intense allergic reactions – Ictus and Julie Pfleiderer sketch a picture of contemporary hypersensitivity. Join an immersive journey that will stimulate all your senses!

Flanked by two clumsy assistants, artist-in-residence Kate McIntosh stands on the stage as a high priestess in a glittering gown. During a kind of revue, they passionately devote themselves to a series of household experiments. Dark Matter is an extremely funny production that simultaneously evokes a sense of ominousness.

In In Many Hands, artist-in-residence Kate McIntosh explores tactility. She invites you to test and to touch, but also to listen and to smell. Along with other visitors, but without speaking, you will experiment with materials in a series of sensorial ‘situations’. In Many Hands is part laboratory, part expedition, part meditation: follow your nose and your curiosity!

Trials of Money turns the theatre into a court of justice which does not yet exist. You’re invited to take part in the Special Tribunal for Semi-Human Persons in order to undertake the trial of the thing called ‘money’. The trial is conducted as a collective exercise: while the performers deliver their testimonies, they will respond to any question the audience has. Should money be found guilty, it leaves us with a very problematic question: what could be a just sentence?

Mette Ingvartsen aims to explore and expose the fact that pornography has rooted itself deep within our society. In the fourth instalment of her Red Pieces cycle, she mixes physical actions with narrative passages, presenting you with a veritable mental choreography. She again holds up her magnifying glass to sexuality – resulting in an extraordinarily intense production.

We live in an age in which human activity has a profound impact on our physical and ecological surroundings. Nevertheless, these transformations often go unseen. How can we create stories, aesthetics, and spaces of experience to deal with this situation reflectively and critically? Looking for answers, David Weber-Krebs and Jeroen Peeters install a series of hybrid artistic and theoretical interventions in a performative setting.

In Kilmore Quay, the perspective of the fish is the only one that matters. Times were good. There was plenty of money and plenty of work – until the European fisheries quotas arrived on their shores. Against the backdrop of an Irish fishing village, Els Dietvorst has filmed the second part of her triptych about the relationship between humans and nature.

What happens exactly when we fall asleep? What is it like to be a viewer watching other people fall asleep in a theatre, to witness this most intimate act? The Guardians of Sleep is a collective attempt to withdraw in a world that is always ‘switched on’ – and where an ‘off’ button simply doesn’t seem to exist.

THE THING is an automated and hybrid form consisting of four episodes, in between performance, workshop, and journey. The only ones present are you, a group of 8 to 12 people who open a suitcase and follow a wild mix of different triggers as a guide. Make a leap of faith!

In the performance Crazy But True, children between the ages of eight and eleven form a panel of experts. A text is whispered to them via headsets. They repeat what they hear, and thus present a growing list of extraordinary facts.

Can light be a compositional building block? The Liquid Room Series radically questions the classical concert model. The audience is free to move around among the various stages set up in the dismantled hall of the Kaaitheater. Immerse yourself in a pure experience of sound and light!

A sudden and uannounced event can change the colour of whatever went before. unannounced – a performance for six dancers – plays with the way your focus shifts when a sudden apparition suddenly changes your perspective. The creators zoom in on the deep dark shades of the black box to look beyond the surface of the here and now. The anticipation of what is to come echoes the afterglow of the past.

Trajal Harrell explores a moment in dance history when female artists presented performances on the boundary between entertainment, erotic dancing, and early experiments in modern dance. CAEN AMOUR is structured as a hoochie coochie show. With a seductive performance, scantily dressed ‘hoochies’ lure you around to the backstage area, to reveal the festivities on the ‘coochie’ side.

With In Many Hands, McIntosh dives into a tactile and multi-sensory world. She invites you to test, touch, listen and smell. She turns her back on the stage and opts for a series of sensory ‘situations’ which give you free rein to experiment. Take your time to explore and follow your nose!

Maarten Vanden Eynde and Alioum Moussa are building a two-part mobile structure, of which one side is the other’s opposite. During Performatik17 they set up shop at Place de la Monnaie, where you are invited to visit them – in pairs – for a discussion about dependence and independence.

With a year’s production of her own wool and two performers, Orla Barry addresses our complex relationship with nature. The result is compelling live performance and a video installation, made up of a series of vignettes that reflect upon the primal, poetic and unpredictable bond we have with the natural world.

Based on the Golem myth – in which Jewish scholars bring dead matter to life, which subsequently turns against them – Thomas Ryckewaert creates an explicitly visual performance about ambition, creativity, power, creation, insanity, and destruction.

In 2012 Karthik Pandian and Andros Zins-Browne visited the Atlas Film Studios in Morocco. They rented a group of camels, which they tried to coax into dancing in amongst the old film sets. With Atlas Revisited, the artists take a look back at this quest for an image of freedom – with brand new video material.

In her successful production All Ears, Kate McIntosh transforms the stage into a laboratory and recording studio. In the silence between the sound recordings, she asks you questions: who are we when we are alone, and what are we missing in our urge for self-actualization? With disarming flair and presence, she blends theatre, variety, stand-up comedy, science and philosophy.

Hear immerses you in a soundscape that explores the physical power of sound. Along with the other viewers, you are blindfolded and scattered around a space, where a visual composition of sounds stimulates your senses. Each show uses a local choir of performers, and consequently evolves into a unique sound performance.